Election dates and frequency
- See also: Rules governing school board election dates and timing
School board nonpartisan primary elections in Oklahoma are held on the second Tuesday in February every year. School board primary elections are only held if more than two candidates run for a school board member seat. If two candidates run, the primary is canceled and both candidates advance to the general election.
School board general elections in Oklahoma are held on the first Tuesday in April every year.
See law: Oklahoma Statute §70-5-107A. Boards of education of school districts - Membership - Election procedure
Recent or upcoming election dates for all public school districts in the state Below are the recent/upcoming dates for all public school districts in the state. There may be exceptions to these dates for specific districts because of local charters and district-specific exceptions and carve-outs.
- Filing deadline date: December 3, 2025
- Primary election date: February 10, 2026
- General election date: April 7, 2026
Election system
School board members in Oklahoma are elected through a system of a nonpartisan primary election and a nonpartisan general election. The primary election is only held if a large enough number of candidates run for office.
See law: Oklahoma Statute §70-5-107A. Boards of education of school districts - Membership - Election procedure
Party labels on the ballot
- See also: Rules governing party labels in school board elections
School board elections in Oklahoma are nonpartisan, which means party labels do not appear on the ballot for school board candidates.
See law: Oklahoma Statute §70-5-107A. Boards of education of school districts - Membership - Election procedure
Winning an election
The top two school board candidates with the most votes in the nonpartisan primary advance to the general election as long as none of them receives more than 50% of the vote. If only two candidates file for the primary election, they automatically advance to the general election. If there are three or more candidates on the ballot for the primary election and one receives more than 50% of the vote, that candidate wins the election outright and is elected to office, and the general election is canceled.
The school board candidate with the most votes in the general election is elected to office. In Oklahoma, school board candidates can be elected outright in the nonpartisan primary election.
See law: Oklahoma Statute §70-5-107A. Boards of education of school districts - Membership - Election procedure
Term length and staggering
School districts with three board members have three-year board member terms. School districts with five members have five-year board member terms. School districts with seven members have four-year board member terms. Elementary school district board members have three-year terms. Independent school districts (which serve grades K-12) have school boards with five-year terms or four-year terms, depending on how many school board members they have. Districts with average student attendance of more than 30,000 can opt to elect a chair of the board in addition to other school board members. The chair must be elected at large to four-year terms. As of 2022, Oklahoma City Schools was the only district that had opted to have an additional elected chair of the school board.
See law: Oklahoma Statute §70-5-107A. Boards of education of school districts - Membership - Election procedure
Representation: at large vs. by sub-district
School districts either elect all regular school board members at large, or they elect all regular school board members from residence areas (sub-districts) with one board member elected by the voters of each sub-district. Elementary school districts must elect school board members at large. Any school district with an average daily student attendance of fewer than 1,800 students may choose to elect school board members at large instead of from sub-districts. Other school districts must elect school board members by sub-districts.
Independent school districts that contain a city and for which less than 20% of the population of the school district resides outside of the city's limits may use the city's ward boundaries instead of drawing its own sub-district boundaries. Board members elected from sub-districts must reside within that sub-district when elected and for the duration of their terms. School districts with average student attendance of more than 30,000 can opt to elect a chair of the school board at large, which means that if other board members are elected by sub-district, that district would use a combination of elections at large and elections by sub-district elections.
See law: Oklahoma Statute §70-5-107A. Boards of education of school districts - Membership - Election procedure
Filing deadlines and swearing-in dates
The deadline for candidates to file for regular school board elections is the Wednesday following the first Monday in December in the year before the February primary election. Candidates must submit their filing by 5:00 pm on the day of the filing deadline.
See law: Oklahoma Statute §26-13A-110
Newly elected school board members officially take office at the first school board meeting taking place after the results of the election have been certified.
See law: Oklahoma Statute §70-5-107A. Boards of education of school districts - Membership - Election procedure
